Are Scones Paleo?

Alison Ver Halen is a novelist and the resident copywriter and researcher here at Paleo Porn. A life-long foodie, she has found Paleo to be a great way to stay healthy while enjoying delicious food.

Scones are made primarily of wheat, and you should know by now how we feel about wheat. For starters, it’s full of gluten and is one of the most inflammatory foods out there, but there’s more to Paleo than just avoiding gluten.

Paleo and Carbohydrates

Even if you have absolutely no problem with gluten, scones are primarily carbohydrates, offering only nominal amounts of fat and protein. Any time we consume foods high in carbohydrates, our bodies experience a spike in blood sugar and they have to respond with an equal surge of insulin to help digest all that sugar. Insulin is a vital hormone that does a lot of useful things for us, but chronically high insulin levels can lead to insulin resistance, which in turn results in chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease.

The Problems Caused by Gluten

Along with the rise in people who test positive for diseases such as Celiac is an increasing awareness that many people are better off without gluten, even if they test negative for gluten sensitivity. Gluten is highly inflammatory and has the unfortunate tendency to increase gut permeability. The lining of our gut is designed to let certain nutrients into the blood stream, while keeping undigested food in the stomach. By messing with this system, gluten allows undigested foods and toxins to get into the blood stream. The body reacts by attacking the toxins and an integral part of that immune response is inflammation. Chronic inflammation has been linked to a number of deadly consequences, including organ failure and cancer.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the wheat we consume today is even worse than the wheat our ancestors were eating when they invented scones (source).